While the cyberpunk theme is popular in the world of science fiction, it’s not heavily used. The merging of technology with humankind is becoming more reality, so you’d think that we’d see it more as a setting. Emergence: Dark Ops is the sequel to Emergence, taking the cyberpunk theme and adding in intrigue and espionage. To find out more I asked Adam Jacobson eight questions to find out more.
Who are you and how did you get involved in gaming?
We are The Emergence Team! A group of friends who all went to high school together 10 years ago. After we all went to colleges around the country, we ended up back in the Seattle area.
The summer we returned from college, our common activity was playing basketball. In Seattle, you can only play basketball outdoors for a few months due to the weather. In order to retreat from the rain, we all found ourselves at Mox Boarding House in Bellevue playing board games!
After playing board games for a while, we all started observing game mechanics and rules of games that we really liked and disliked. We decided it would be great if we could make a game combining the best elements of the board games we loved!
We made Emergence last year and it surpassed all of our expectations on Kickstarter! We were really ecstatic about our success with Emergence, and it really propelled us to make Emergence Dark Ops.
Why create Emergence: Dark Ops with a cyberpunk feel?
We grew up with technology and most of us currently work in Tech! The idea of machine learning and automation is something that we hear about regularly, and the topic is very interesting to us!
AI and machine learning is becoming more and more relevant, and the Emergence Dark Ops theme is becoming more and more current/realistic.
Today, we already have Alexa, Google Home, The Model 3, IBM Watson, and Block Chain Technology. These are all built around machine learning and technology that seem like it is something that would exist tomorrow… Yet it exists today!
Emergence Dark Ops was designed to represent all these things that are futuristic, yet relevant to our everyday lives.
What makes Emergence: Dark Ops different from other board games?
Emergence Dark Ops is all about calculated movements, and requiring you to think one step ahead. We designed the Original Emergence to take the game mechanics of our favorite games, and turn it into a completely new game!
Emergence was designed so we can make a new game that we can enjoy for ourselves, and we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to share it with the world.
Emergence Dark Ops takes the original game to the next level. New game mechanics and rules, as we continue our story/them in a futuristic dystopia.
Our game design and artwork was designed by Jordan Roberts, who is an absolute genius and took Emergence Dark Ops to the next level! He worked with very talented artists to who developed characters that fit our theme and build the story.
Will the board have variable setups or the same setup for each game?
The original Emergence was designed so that you can have different map setups. We even encourage people to create your own maps or use one already created in our map database:
Emergence Dark Ops will have the same type of design, each city design allows for a different strategy, different interactions and keeps each playthrough unique and exciting.
Does each agent upgrade their abilities in the same order or will there be differences besides their starting affinity?
Agents will have access to all six abilities and can upgrade them in whatever order they choose. Also in the advance rules, each agent will have a special ability unique to them that they can use a limited amount of times per game.
After each turn there’s a data upload where resource shards can be placed to vote whether resource shards are converted to influence, which are basically the points in the game. Why would you not want the upload to be successful?
On the occasion you don’t drop any shards back to your base or if you have a lot less shards then the other player. Perhaps you spent the entire first 5 rounds upgrading your character, you have no shards to upload, thus you would want to fail it since it doesn’t benefit you.
The game takes place over 25 turns. How do you prevent the game from stretching out for too long?
First, we designed the game to be fairly quick. 25 Turns seems like a lot, but it goes by a lot quicker than you think.
If you are short on time, you can simply do three rounds of 5 (15 turns), and that will make for a lot quicker game!
If the Kickstarter is successful, when do you expect Emergence: Dark Ops to be available in retail?
The game will be in retail by March 2018! However, if you want to receive the game before it is in stores at the lowest price, check out our Kickstarter!
Emergence: Dark Ops sounds like an interesting mix of mechanics and theme. Be sure to check out their Kickstarter to find out more and support getting it published.
While not working as a Database Administrator, Keith Schleicher has been associated with Gaming Trend since 2003. While his love of video games started with the Telestar Alpha (a pong console with four different games), he trule started playing video games when he received the ill-fated TI-99/4A. While the Speech Synthesizer seemed to be the height of gaming, eventually a 286 AT computer running at 8/12 Hz and a CGA monitor would be his outlet for a while. Eventually he’d graduate to 386, 486, Pentium, and Athlon systems, building some of those systems while doing some hardware reviews and attending Comdex. With the release of the Dreamcast that started his conversion to the console world. Since then he has acquired an NES, SNES, PS2, PS3, PSP, GBA-SP, DS, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One S, Gamecube, Wii, Switch, and Oculus Quest 2. While not playing video games he enjoys bowling, reading, playing board games, listening to music, and watching movies and TV. He originally hails from Wisconsin but is now living in Michigan with his wife and sons.
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